McDaniel announced in a news release Thursday that he is launching the "Election Integrity Challenge and Voter Fraud Reward" program. McDaniel is offering 15 rewards of $1,000 each to those who provide evidence that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in voter fraud in connection with the June 24 Republican primary runoff election.

"The most important issue here is maintaining the integrity of the electoral process here in Mississippi," McDaniel said an email to supporters. "These allegations of criminal behavior on behalf of the Cochran (campaign) are troubling, and any evidence of fraud will be turned over to authorities to be investigated."

The McDaniel campaign has claimed to have found thousands of irregularities in the voting process during the runoff election, which was won by incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. The campaign alleges that residents who voted in the Democratic primary cast ballots in the Republican runoff, which is against state law.

"There are still 31 counties where we have not gained access to the election records and there are more than 19,000 absentee ballots that have yet to be examined," said Noel Fritsch, a spokesman for the McDaniel campaign. "We are very confident that among those 31 counties and 19,000 absentee ballots, that we are going to find a great deal of -- perhaps thousands more -- ineligible ballots."

Jordan Russell, a spokesman for the Cochran campaign, said McDaniel is not concerned about what's best for Mississippi.

"He's not concerned about the integrity of the process. He's not concerned about keeping the Senate seat in Republican hands in November. He refuses to accept the will of the voters of Mississippi. The election results were clear: Sen. Cochran won (and) he has the nomination," Russell said. "We are moving on to November. Obviously, if he had evidence of wrongdoing, he should put up or shut up. Fundraising at the same time he's offering a $1,000 bounty is the most ridiculous campaign stunt I've ever seen."

The ongoing Senate battle took another turn Wednesday during a conference call for media who were unable to attend a news conference in Jackson. Cochran campaign spokesman Austin Barbour addressed the claims from the McDaniel camp of voting irregularities, as he did in the news conference earlier in the day. But someone on the call interrupted with racially-charged questions, including asking why the Cochran campaign chose to "harvest black votes."

Barbour tried to continue, but was interrupted again by the man. Eventually, Barbour and Jordan ended the call and told members of the national media to call or email them.